Halliburton Oil Rig Disaster, and Cover-Up: Confidential Settlement

In 2008, we brought wrongful death and punitive damages claims against
Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. and successfully settled with the oil
and gas giant for a confidential amount. The Halliburton supervisor failed
to chain down or otherwise secure a pipe, which was carrying cement under
very high pressure. The cement pipe clogged in the cold weather, and when
the pressure was released, the pipe shot out of the hole and whipped around
the derrick floor, knocking a young man 35 feet off the derrick floor
to his death. The Halliburton supervisor admitted that he had not slept
in over 47 hours prior to taking on the job at this well site. We represented
the young man’s family, and we brought claims against Halliburton
for intentional failure to enforce a fatigue prevention policy among its
workers. After prevailing through years of expensive appeals brought by
Halliburton, the court allowed us to review thousands of Halliburton employee’s
DOT logs, and we compared those to the hourly invoices Halliburton charged
its clients, which revealed that Halliburton employees repeatedly falsified
their DOT logs in order to appear more rested than they really were so
they could work longer hours. The case settled soon after the widespread
DOT log falsification was uncovered.